This invention relates generally to the field of portable leg exercise devices and more specifically to a knee rehabilitation exercise device.
With today's rigorous sports activities including football, tennis, basketball and soccer it is unfortunately a common occurrence for active people to injure there knee joint to the point where surgical treatment is necessary to repair the knee and areas around the knee.
Because of this, it has been necessary to provide devices to help rehabilitate the knee area after surgery. Some devices are simply leg braces that help take pressure off the knee joint while it is healing. Other devices are machines or apparatus that help strengthen the leg muscles around the knee and associated with proper knee function.
Patents that describe leg braces that help keep the knee joint supported during exercise include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,982,732, 5,116,296, 4,433,679 and 5,980,435. Patents that describe exercise apparatus for helping to rehabilitate the muscles of the leg around the knee joint include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,546,968, 4,776,587, 4,979,737 and 5,181,895. However, these patents and other commercially available exercise devices have a deficiency in that none of them allows a person to wear a light weight inexpensive brace which has hooks attached to allow the user to releasably attach an elastic band from the area of the upper leg to the area of the lower leg, and to insert a portable assembly behind the user's knee for the elastic band to stretch over to increase the resistance factor to the muscles surrounding the knee joint. Furthermore, none of the patents or other prior art shows a leg brace exercise device that allows the user to easily and quickly change the resistance band location from the back of the leg to the front of the leg whereby the user can insert a portable assembly in front of the knee which the elastic band passes over to passively stretch the knee joint to a straight position.